Jun

1

Danelectro Cool Cat! Pedal Sound Clips

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Through a relationship I’ve built over at the Huge Racks Inc Forum, I was asked to participate in a pilot program to help test out and launch the new Cool Cat! pedals from Danelectro.

Pedals tested: Vibe, Fuzz and Metal II Danelectro Cool Cat!

In attempt to keeps things equal, I played each pedal via a Suhr Classic (alder body, Brazilian rosewood fingerboard, Suhr V60LP single coil pickups and Suhr SSC system) through a Custom Audio Amplifiers (CAA) OD100 Classic Plus. Cabs are CAA 1×12’s with Eminence Governors and I mic’d one of the cabs with a SM57. There are two clips for each pedal: one through the clean channel of the amp and one through the overdrive channel. Each clips begins with an un-effected riff for two bars and then alternates between effected and un-effected each two bars after that. Some clips have a little extra “stuff” going on at the end to demo the pedals a little further.

Danelectro Cool Cat Vibe - Clean

Danelectro Cool Cat Vibe - Dirty

Danelectro Cool Cat Fuzz - Clean

Danelectro Cool Cat Fuzz - Dirty

Danelectro Cool Cat Metal II - Clean

Danelectro Cool Cat Metal II - Dirty

Out of the three pedals, I dug the vibe pedal the most. That said, it had a rather pronounced (or perceived) volume boost when the pedal was engaged. It was the only pedal I tested that does not have a volume control (only mix).

Being that these pedals were true-bypass and of solid construction, I’d say that they would make a solid addition to any pedalboard. I’m certainly interested in checking out more of their product line. So far, so good.

Mar

20

Baker B1 7 - my entrance into the world of the seven string guitar

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Baker B1 7During the mid 90’s when it wasn’t cool to be good at guitar, I eschewed the grundge movement and threw myself into the world of jazz. Being a big fan of “Birth of the Cool” music up through the heavy, funky grooves of Medeski Martin & Wood, I decided to focus my efforts on playing bass with my organ trio (sometimes quartet and quintet), Thique. It wasn’t long before I discovered the power of the bass in music, and the bassist among musicians. Truly, the bassist has the power to subvertly (or overtly for that matter) influence the entire rest of the band through changes in groove, rhythm or harmonic structure. I was truly in awe of this awesome responsibility.

Fast forward more than 10 years later, I found myself looking to influence the music and the musicians I play with in a new way. I wanted a way to extend the range of what I was doing without playing a completely different instrument. I like the way guitar can influence harmony and rhythm. But I wanted a little of that subversion back. Enter the seven string guitar.

Steve Vai can be thanked for bringing the seven string solidbody (seven string guitars archtop hollowbodies have been popular with jazz guitarists for many years) to the masses in the early nineties via his solo album “Passion & Warfare” along with Whitesnake’s “Slip of the Tongue” (the latter gig which he took to fund and promote the prior). The seven string solidbody then experienced a renaissance in the late 90’s/early 2000’s when nu-metal bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit. However, because of its extended range and ability to be significantly down-tuned plus the addition of more modern amplification options with solid state rectifiers, most seven strings found their way into metal, nu-metal, nu-nu-meteal, etc.

Since the music I enjoy and play is more of an extension of jam bands (fusion of rock, funk, jazz, electronica, etc), I thought it would be really cool to bring the new sonic capabilities of the seven string to that sound…..to the best of my knowledge it hasn’t been done before. Only problem was most seven strings were designed for extreme metal. That certainly wasn’t going to do.

So enter January 2008. At the NAMM Tone Merchants party I had an opportunity to play a seven string Vigier through a Cornford MK50 II. Wow! What a sound! OK, now I confirmed that I wanted to explore this further. Then, after Suhr Guitars debuted their new “Modern” 24 fret model, there was talk that they might offer a seven string model. Being a fan of Suhr’s work, I was very excited about the prospects. However, that hope was short-lived as the Suhr guys soon found themselves overwhelmed with demand for their new products that had been developed, let alone any items that they might develop. So my dream of a seven string Suhr would have to wait for some time.

Based on my own tonal explorations, I knew I wanted a guitar with a mahogany body, mahogany neck, maple top and Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. The trouble was finding one. There weren’t any mass-produced models that met my needs. Ibanez is probably the most well know main stream seven string manufacturer, but there guitars always had maple necks and I can’t say enough about how much I dislike the sound of a maple neck on a mahogany body. That, and well, I’ve never cared for Ibanezes. I soon realized I would have to go boutique if I wanted anything that was of quality and with the woods that I wanted. I new Gene Baker make a few sevens years ago, but his old company was since out of business and his new pursuits were focusing on more “conservative” models. Luckily I’ve been following the muses of Matte Henderson for some time (extreme seven string enthusiast). I’ve kept in touch with him over time in case he ever wanted to sell any of his custom seven string beauties and he had one for sale…..but it was korina. I learned not too long ago (through a couple of Gene Baker BX3’s) that I greatly preferred the tonal qualities of mahogany over korina…..though they are within the same ballpark. However that interaction brought to mind another Baker seven string that I became aware of at least a year earlier.

My friend Dave Kaplowitz had acquired a fine Baker B1 7 from Joe Gamble (in of all places, about ten miles from where I live in Colorado). As fate would have it, Dave wasn’t really playing the Baker and a deal was struck to bring her back to CO.

While I would have preferred a trem and 25.5″ scale length, I’m more than happy with the quality, sound and playability of this 25″ fixed bridge Baker B1 7. I’m going to experiment with new pickups (the stock Dimarzio Airbuckers are way too dark and hot for my tastes) and some different string gauges (the low A is an .080!), but all in all, I’m very excited about the prospects of developing some new sounds with this guitar. Look out jamband scene of Colorado! This is not Jerry Garcia’s kind of guitar!

Feb

27

Egnater Amp Building Seminar, Premier Guitar Magazine & Video Feature of Yours Truly

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This past weekend I had the priveledge to attend the Egnater amp building seminar outside of Detroit, MI. It was an amazing experience to build my own JTM 45 - inspired amp, let alone to learn about all of the theory behind how and why these things work. I was amazed at seemingly how few of the amp’s components actually let to it sounding like a Marshall, Fender, Vox, etc. The amp sounds great as is, but I’m psyched to get back under the hood and start some tweaking!

In related news, Premier Guitar Magazine’s Joe Coffey was in attendance to participate and document the class. Afterward he asked be to demo my completed amp (with my Suhr Standard). I just learned that the magazine decided to put that video up as a feature on their site! Check it out:

Jan

23

Blabbermouth.net and posting my content without credit

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I received an interesting lesson regarding free syndication of content today via Google Alerts. Apparently Blabbermouth.net chose to post some of my videos from my NAMM coverage. Fine, but not only did they not give any credit, they even posted my descriptions verbatim from my YouTube entries. I set the content up to be freely distributed in an effort to help spread the word about certain artists and manufacturers. That said, posting someone else’s content without citing a source or giving credit is totally wrong in my book.

Jan

22

Videos from Winter NAMM 2008 Day 1

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While I’m still combing through all the footage, I’ve compiled a playlist on YouTube of some of my favorite Suhr Reb Beach moments from the show (c0nvention at Tone Merchants party).

Jan

18

Winter NAMM - Day 1 wrap up

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Highlights:

  • Suhr Modern - new 24 fret model with new body shape, neck joint and neck carve - will own one!
  • Suhr Badger 40 watt - with EL34’s  -  different “flavor” of the original badger - less chime, more midrange snarl - has a solid state rectifier (original Badger has tube recifier)
  • Custom Audio Amplifiers - OD100 Standard and OD100 SE Plus - now I understand what all the fuss is about regarding the current version of the standard.  The SE Plus is certainly an improvement over the SE, put I think that the current standard suits my tastes better.  Still love my OD100 Classic Plus
  • Scott Henderson playing in the Suhr sound booth.  That was a  treat!  Scott’s a cool, wacky dude.  He brought his Suhr SL100 and played that and a Maxon overdrive to get his sound.
  • Reb Beach playing in the Suhr Booth.  He actually wound up using Scott Henderson’s amp for his demo.  Wild hearing those two players through exactly the same gear!  No surprises though in that Scott sounded like Scott and Reb sounded like Reb.
  • Enjoyed hanging with John, Steve, Ed, Mike, Chris, Josh and Jarod.  These guys are up to something good.
  • Soloway Swan - hung with Jim Soloway and got to play one of his Swan guitars at the Fargen booth.  Really cool long-scale guitar and great sounding amps.
  • Tomo Fujita playing at the Fuchs booth.  Always a treat to see Tomo.  Need to spend more time at that both on Friday.
  • Tim Pierce at the Anderson Guitarworks booth. In speaking with Tim, he revealed the fact that he owns 60 guitars and really doesn’t know what woods are in which guitars.  He doesn’t even think about that.  He just grabs some guitars when he’s working on a project and sees what works.  That surprised me!
  • Anderson has a new “thicker” version of the Atom.  Looked beautiful.  Hope to play it tomorrow.
  • Alleva Copolla Guitars - Jimmy Copolla has a beautiful display of his fine craftsmanship.  Expect to do a video interview with him tomorrow as well.  His bass pickups are sick.
  • Diamond Amplification - never tried the amps but the girls were ridiculous.
  • Paul Reed Smith - saw David Grissom, the DGT and the new McCarty II.  Not quite sure that its all about (PRS booth not demo friendly).  Their product line appeared somewhat scaled back.  Did get to hear a bit of Johnny Hiland.  That guy smokes!
  • Marshall Randy Rhodes limited edition amp.  Looks cool, never got to hear it.
  • Ernie Ball Music Man - nice representation of existing line.  Nothing new other than nice display of Family Reserve guitars.
  • Saw lots of seemingly foreign vendors.  Most looked unhappy that their booths were empty.  Saw one guy asleep in his booth - his product was a PA speaker that you could slide a pull-out car radio into.  I think that product might be about a decade too late.
  • Tone Merchants showcase and jam - Jose Decastro, Robert Marcello, Guthrie Govan and Reb Beach.  Each were amazing in their own right.  Jam with all the above plus Nick Sterling was total fun!  Got to hang with all of them - good times!

I have an extensive amount of video from the day and the Tone Merchants show that I’ll edit an post once I’m back in the office.

Jan

17

Blogging The NAMM Show

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Today marks the beginning of coverage of Winter NAMM 2008.  Stay tuned for all the latest and greatest news.  Quick updates will be posted via Twitter  with daily wrap-up articles posted here, complete with photos and video.  Stay tuned!

Oct

2

Gibson’s new self-tuning guitar

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Gibson’s new self-tuning guitar

Well, this isn’t the first self-tuning system to be available to the public, but its the first made available from a major guitar manufacturer. Since Gibson and Fender are essentially the GM and Ford of the guitar industry, I’m quite skeptical as to the level of quality made available through these mass producers. Then again, after many years of searching for a quality Les Paul I did purchase a 1960 VOS Les Paul Standard within the past year and absolutely love the instrument. I’ll reserve my opinion to when I actually have one in my hands.

Source: Engadget

Sep

13

Custom Audio Amplifiers (Suhr) OD100 Classic Plus - third time is the charm!

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Suhr Badger, Custom Audio Amplifiers OD100 Classic Plus and Diezel Herbert MKII

After about a month in the shop, I received my newly modded Custom Audio Amplifiers OD100 Classic Plus (+). This is actually the third time this amp has been modded (was originally an OD100 Standard, then SE, now Classic Plus).

My first impressions on this amp are as follows: the character of the gain is still 100% Suhr. It lives in the same family as the SE version of the OD100, however through the conversion to the plexi transformer and the EL34’s some things have really changed.

Normally I would associate sustain with compression. The SE was pretty compressed, but only in boost mode, IMO. The CAA Classic Plus is a much easier to play amp. Notes just seem to sustain without sounding compressed. Everything just oozes out of this amp while still retaining the sound of the guitar/pickup. That’s how John’s described the amp and that’s why I went with this version. So far, I’m totally digging the change.

Special note should be mentioned about the DEPTH and FEEBACK controls. The tonal shaping that can happen as a result of these additions is really something else. If you want to have that “rounded” Dumble style tone, you can roll off the Feedback entirely.

One other thing that should be mentioned is that this is the first of the OD100 series where I feel the amp works equally well for single coils and humbuckers. That, to me, is one of the best parts of this amp. I just works!

Here’s a little sample of what the amp sounds like:

http://www.petelacis.com/clips/od100classicplus.mp3

Custom Audio Amplification OD100 Classic Plus through CAA 1×12 Eminence Governor mic’d with a SM57 just off center. Guitar is a stock Gibson Les Paul VOS 1960.